Parishes adjacent to Onibury

Stanton Lacy

Clungunford

Leintwardine with Adforton

Bromfield

Stokesay

Culmington

Historical Descriptions

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ONIBURY, a village and a parish in Ludlow district, Salop. The village stands on the river Onny, adjacent to the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway, 1½ mile N of the boundary with Herefordshire, and 6¼ N W of Ludlow; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office under Newton, Salop. The parish contains also the hamlet of Walton, and comprises 1,992 acres. Real property, £2,703. Pop., 375. Houses, 76. The property is divided among three. The manor belongs to the Earl of Craven. Building-stone is quarried. The parish is a meet for the Ludlow hounds. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £316. Patron, the Earl of Craven. The church is ancient, with a tower; and was restored in 1837, and re-roofed in 1840. There is an endowed school.

Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Onibury or Onnybury. A parish in the lower division of the hundred of Munslow, a rectory remaining in charge, in the diocese of Hereford, the deanery of Ludlow, and archdeaconry of Salop. 66 houses, 445 inhabitants. 4 ½ miles north-west of Ludlow.

The tower of its rural church is overshadowed with ivy, and the surrounding scenery is of the most interesting description.

There is a school at this place, first established in 1563, by William Norton, who by will bequeathed to it the sum of £6 6s. 8d. yearly; which, with an additional allowance from the parish funds, is advanced to the yearly stipend of £12. The Rector has also further added a convenient house and garden, originally belonging to the parsonage house.

The scholars are taught reading, writing, and arithmetick, and the school is free for the admission of all who apply.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

William Norton’s School

Onibury had an early parochial School, which was founded and endowed by William Norton, citizen and stationer of London. By his Will dated 27 August, 1593, proved in the P.C.C., 1594, he charged his messuage and lands in the parish of St. Sepulchre without Newgate, London, with the yearly payment of £6 13s. 4d. to the schoolmaster of Onibury “who should teach and instruct children in good letters in the said parish”, for his better maintenance. This money was regularly remitted by Christ’s Hospital to the churchwardens, except during the Great Fire, when for a while payment was suspended. The schoolmaster was to be elected by the governors of Christ’s Hospital. The Charity Commissioners stated in 1819 that the schoolmaster’s salary was made up to £12 from parish funds, with the privilege of taking pay scholars. The master was then a shoemaker by trade, and had neglected his school, which had then dwindled to ten free scholars and five or six who paid.

As early as 1591, the burial of “Thomas Bushop schoolmaster”, occurs in the Register, and he was succeeded by “Richard Churchman, school-maister”, who became Rector of the parish in 1603. The school, which stood at the south-east corner of the churchyard, was built by subscription in 1836. The present school was erected in 1871, and enlarged in 1893, for 135 children.

William Norton (born in 1527) was one of the six sons of Richard Norton of Onibury, whose Will was proved at Hereford in 1559. by his wife Jane Pyeres. She by her Will in 1575 begs her son William to give to her parish church of Onibury one book which is there lacking known by the name of the paraphrases of (torn off) or Masculus, whichever it shall please him to bestow, so that he give of the largest volume. William Norton was Master of the Stationers Hall in 1581, 1586 and 1593, and Treasurer of Christ’s Hospital. He married Joan daughter of William Bonham of Colchester, and had an only son Bonham Norton, born 1565, of London and Church Stretton, Sheriff in 1611. He was buried in St. Faith’s Church in the Crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and, in addition to his endowment of the School, he left 40s. each to the poor of Onibury, Ludford, Ludlow, Stottesden, and Cleobury Mortimer, in all of which parishes he owned property.

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